A Taste for Fat: The New Key to Weight Loss?

It isn’t news to any of us that obesity is on the rise in the US. A new discovery by Dr. Russell Keast could hold the key to reducing obesity rates once and for all. It’s already known that we can detect five different “tastes”: sweet, salt, sour, bitter and umami (a taste for protein). But Keast’s study shows that we also have a “sixth” taste – and no, it’s not ESP. But it may be something just as exciting – a taste for fat.

Keast and PhD student Jessica Stewart tested people’s ability to taste fatty acids often found in foods. What they discovered could be quite profound: those with a higher sensitivity to the taste of fat tended to eat fewer fatty foods overall and had lower body mass indexes. Keast’s research suggests that those of us who may overindulge in fatty foods simply don’t taste the fat as keenly as others do.

What might this mean for those of us struggling to lose those extra pounds? There may be hope, and the key to that hope may lie in our own taste buds – taking mindful eating to the next level. Diet programs advise us to listen when our bodies are full. But in the future, will we learn to identify the taste of fat, and put down our spoons before overeating? Maybe. Until that day comes, exercise and a well-balanced diet are still our best bets for a leaner lifestyle.

2 Comments

The problem is the people interpreting this are assuming that consumption of fat is the cause of obesity. Why would you want to avoid fat when it is sugar that is converted into body fat?

Maybe some people are OVER sensitive to the taste of fat and avoid it, kinda like I’m over sensitive to the smell of lavender and thus avoid it. It doesn’t mean that people who have normal reactions to lavender are somehow faulty. Nor are people with a Normal appetite for fats overindulging, whatever that means, you have no definition. Considering all the Low Fat Lauding this would be wonderful news for jenny craig and Weigh watchers, but we know that low fat diets are not sustainable for weight loss. and most people do enjoy the taste of fat over low fat, Why do you think they have to add so much SUGAR and other fake ingredients to low fat food to make them taste as good as regular fat foods. I’m not buying their interpretation.

Eating too much of one of these foods that equates to each specific six tastes qualities leads to a type of illness/disease that also equates to each specific 6 food tastes that were prefered, consumed more frequently that led to said illness/disease each of these 6 tastes is like an addiction that also has a tolerance the more you have of it the more you want(tolerance, eating more and more to get the feeling of the initial disruption of indulging in toomuch)
If some one has a problem with high salt/sodium levels they get told by a doctor to aim for a low sodium diet and they stop salt and sodium. The more you use salt/sodium the more they get a high tolerance and less “keen” however the less you use the more you are acutely aware of and the same goes for every one of these so called 6 tastes, I think it’s moreso based on tolerance and addiction